War Crimes Commission: Buchenwald and Dachau Concentration Camps
Creator(s)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- James B. Donovan (Director)
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. (Producer)
- George C. Stevens (Director)
- E. R. Kellogg (Director)
Biographical History
United States Navy Lieutenant E. R. Kellogg certifies motion pictures of Nazi concentration camps in an affidavit presented in the "Nazi Concentration Camps" film by the Americans as evidence during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Kellogg had expertise in motion picture and photographic techniques through his employment with Twentieth Century Fox Studios in California from 1929 to 1941. He attests that he has thoroughly examined the concentration camp liberation films of the Army Signal Corps and found them to be unaltered, genuine, and true copies of the originals in the U.S. Army Signal Corps vaults.
James B. Donovan. United States Navy Commander. Associate Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, where he coordinated and presented all Nazi films at the trials. General Counsel to OSS. Negotiated the exchange of Bay of Pigs prisoners with Fidel Castro as an independent lawyer under backdrop of the missile crisis, securing the freedom of nearly 10,000 people. Portrayed by Tom Hanks in "Bridge of Spies".
George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946 under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day — including the only Allied European Front color film of the war — the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as an "essential visual record" of World War II.
Scope and Content
"Buchenwald Concentration Camp" General views of the camp at Buchenwald. Red EXT of camp. HSs of the area. "Jedem Das Sein" gate closes. Red Cross trucks from Switzerland enter the camp grounds. Male survivors leave the camp. Among the survivors are 1000 boys under 14. Evidence of crimes: CUs of dead with numbers tattooed on stomachs; emaciated survivors; stacks of bodies outside and inside the crematorium; the experimental building where various toxins were tried; truckloads of the dead; CU weapon of torture; INT, crematorium ovens showing skeletons inside and piles of bone ash. 1200 German civilians from Weimar march to the camp, many smiling. HSs, civilians entering camp. Cut to, German civilians viewing display of parchments of human skin, lampshade made from human skin stretched and etched upon, and two shrunken heads; all trophies of the Nazis. Reactions of the civilians are shown in CU; women faint and are carried out. Survivors seen in BG. There is also a forced inspection of the living quarters, showing diseased men. "Dachau Concentration Camp" Aerial views of Dachau where 30,000 were imprisoned. Gate to camp with swastika. CUs of inmates, emaciated survivors, faces. Trains filled with prisoners who were dead on arrival, CUs. Survivors with blankets on a wagon awaiting exit from camp. Pile of bodies buried by surviving inmates. Masses of bodies inside building discovered by the liberators. CUs of the dead. Local townspeople are brought in to view the camp. Women weep after seeing piles of dead. LS, clothing of the prisoners hung outside building in which prisoners were gassed. INTs of shower baths showing CUs of gas vents, dummy shower heads, engineers' room, intake and outtake valves, hand valve used to regulate gas pressure, can of Zyklon B, and crematories. INTs of crematories, ashes. Shots of naked survivors showing the effects of Nazi brutality.
Note(s)
01:07:04 Scene matching mural that the USHMM did not choose for start of Permanent Exhibition. Corresponds to Reel 5 of The Nazi Concentration Camps, NARA 238.2. Duplicate footage on Film ID 2273, Story 2440, Film ID 2322, Story 2629, and Film ID 2815, Story 4500. Original unedited segments of Dachau are located on Film ID 2, Story 8 (111 ADC 4468). The USHMM also contains a 16mm film print of "Nazi Concentration Camps" from National Audiovisual Center that has not been transferred.
"Nazi Concentration Camps" was compiled as evidence and shown at the Nuremberg Trials on November 29, 1945 as Prosecution Exhibit #230. It contains film evidence of Nazi atrocities at the concentration camps of Leipzig, Penig, Ohrdruf, Hadamar, Breendonck, Hanover, Arnstadt, Nordhausen, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Belsen. The film was produced for the U.S. Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality in 1945. It was directed by Navy Cmdrs. James B. Donovan and E. Ray Kellogg. George C. Stevens was responsible for directing the photography and filming of the concentration camps as liberated by Allied forces. The film has also been called "Concentration Camps in Germany, 1939-1945".
Subjects
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- CORPSES
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- WAR CRIMES COMMISSIONS
- GERMANS
- TRIALS
- DACHAU
- TATTOOS
- BUCHENWALD
- ATROCITIES
- HUMAN REMAINS
Places
- Buchenwald, Germany
- Dachau, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Documentary.